As Sudan prepares to celebrate the fifth anniversary of an increasingly precarious peace deal, its health services are still unable to reach more than a quarter of the population and are incapable of adequately responding to the needs of victims of violence, warns the charity Médecins Sans Frontières.

In its latest report, released on 14 December, the charity said that over the past year “there has been a disturbing escalation in violent clashes across Southern Sudan, from attacks by [Ugandan] rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Equatoria States to the so called ‘tribal clashes’ in Upper Nile, Jonglei, Lakes and Central Equatoria States.”

The intensity and targeted nature of the violence “represents something more than inter-tribal cattle rustling” …